South West Africa campaign

The South West Africa campaign was fought from 15 September 1914 to 9 July 1915 during the African theatre of World War I. British, South African, and Portuguese troops invaded German South West Africa (present-day Namibia), which was annexed to South Africa after the war.

History
In September 1914, British and South African naval forces attacked the coast of German South West Africa, occupying the port of Luderitz and destroying the radio transmitter at Swakopmund.

After initial British attacks on the colony's ports, the Germans withdrew to the interior. From February to July 1915, Louis Botha and Jan Smuts, commanding South African mounted troops, penetrated South West Africa from the coast, the Namib Desert, or from South Africa. In the process, they uncovered evidence of German massacres of the Herrero and Hottentot populations carried out in the decade before the war. They took the capital of windhoek in May, and the Germans surrendered the colony seven weeks later.